Pardew – We Missed The Warrier In Midfield

I had breakfast with my son Neil today, and he mentioned that there seemed to be a lack of leadership in the Newcastle team yesterday, and that’s the first time we’ve seen that lack of leadership in a Newcastle side for a while.

Jonas Gutierrez tackled by Andy Carroll yesterday
But Fabricio Coloccini is out suspended, and Jonas Gutierrez, the stand-in captain, had to leave the filed after only 23 minutes, and of course we were without Cheick Tiote, who always provides some energy to the center of the park, even though he gets booked an awful lot of times.

Newcastle had enough chances to win this game and they forced former Bolton goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen into several fine saves in the second half to keep the clean sheet, and to be fair West Ham played very well yesterday, and looked a decent side.
Alan Pardew talked about the game to nufcTV:

“If you don’t score at home then you’re asking for trouble.” “We threatened the goal and had eight or nine shots but nothing with any real purpose or quality; one good effort from Yohan (Cabaye) that they blocked away but no, I’m disappointed.”

“We should have played better and certainly we missed an opportunity in the first 20 minutes. We wasted 20 minutes, we couldn’t get going. We knew they were going to play a fragmented game and put balls in our box but it was costly today for us, that period.”

“They got a goal and then really we were huffing and puffing and just couldn’t produce that moment.” “There were no excuses from the Europa League this week.” “We had a fresh team – but we did have a lot of problems on the pitch.”

“Yohan Cabaye was limping around, Demba Ba was struggling with his shin a little bit, Papiss came off with a bad back so we had a few things going on.” “We obviously lost Jonas and we couldn’t get any rhythm again and that’s what we’re searching for.”

“That’s the sort of game where you need Tiote – you need your warrior out there. They had a bit too much time in midfield today and I think Cheick would have sorted that out, so it’ll be nice to see him back next week.”

Newcastle can start to put things right by winning at home against Swansea next Saturday afternoon at St. James’ Park, but we must start this game on the front foot, and hopefully all the players that start the game will be fully fit by then.

Ed…A good point raised about leadership. As I may have mentioned today, I missed the game yesterday (:) ), so interesting topic to hear about. Colo, Guti and indeed Tiote are big characters when on the pitch, who steps up when they’re not there? I thought Taylor did a decent job of rallying the other week (can’t remember which fixture – was it Liverpool?). Krul is organised in and around his box, but not over the whole team. Cabaye the French captain (right?)? Hasn’t really shown too much leadership in Newcastle colours really.

Diame was quality for west ham he really ran the show, carroll i was not overly impressed with. For a big guy he should win things, you would expect crouch to win it in the air. A lot of the time we gave him a free header when he wasn’t in an overly dangerous position on the field and he should of buried his shot. Diame was man of the match overall but i’d say young ferguson for us.

We certainly do miss the steel of tiote and the leadership of colo. Taylor seems like captaincy material but silly things like that dive at anfield do not make him look good. I would like to see cabaye be a bit more of a leader., Shola seems a bit of a cult hero amongst the lads when he plays. Jonas for me is a strange choice of captain but Pardew deals with the team so he must know who the players look up to

In honor of two dedicated Newcastle fans, who lost their lives supporting Newcastle United.

Their passenger jet was shot down over Ukraine on Thursday July 17th, 2014 by rebels, as they were traveling to support the team in New Zealand.

We will never forget them.

Health Update - 4 Aug, 2016

The good news last week was that after more blood tests my PSA count is still undetectable

This means the prostate cancer is still under control, and there is no trace of it in the body.

Now to be even more vigilant so I can see the Rafa Benitez project come to its fruition over the next few years - wouldn't want to miss that.

Howay The Lads!!>

Ed Harrison

What Is A Football Club?

What is a club in any case?

Not the buildings or the directors or the people who are paid to represent it.

It’s not the television contracts, get-out clauses, marketing departments or executive boxes.

It’s the noise, the passion, the feeling of belonging, the pride in your city.

It’s a small boy clambering up stadium steps for the very first time, gripping his father’s hand, gawping at that hallowed stretch of turf beneath him and, without being able to do a thing about it, falling in love.